Nagila Goes Kosher

WILMINGTON, NC — A stunning mound of fresh cilantro awaits chef Shai Shalit near the kitchen sink one morning at Nagila restaurant. The tender, green sprigs look ready for a cookbook photo, yet Shalit, despite working since nearly dawn, begins washing each leaf by hand.

Jewish Pattern Takes its Place in History of Scottish Tartans

GIFFNOCK, Scotland — Jewish people have inhabited Scotland for more than 300 years, but in all that time, the group hasn’t been able to lay claim to a tartan of its own.

According to Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Mendel Jacobs, reputed to be the only Scottish-born rabbi living in the country, the recent unveiling of the first distinctly Jewish tartan – a patterned cloth known in America as plaid – now gives Scotland’s Jewish community an important measure of distinctly Scottish pride.

“Scotland has a rich tapestry of culture and history,” says Jacobs, noting that the first Jewish resident of Edinburgh was recorded in 1691. “When England was exiling its Jews in the Middle Ages, Scotland provided a safe haven from English and European anti-Semitism.”

After Settling Kosher Food Suit, California Prisons Get an Influx of Jewish Chaplains

LOS ANGELES, CA — Mendel Slavin went to work as a chaplain in a San Diego prison in 2006. A Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi from the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, he was one of about a dozen Jewish chaplains serving California’s fractional Jewish inmate population at the time. But in the two years since then, that number has literally doubled. Today Slavin is one of two dozen full-time chaplains employed by the state of California to provide counseling and lead religious services for Jews — and interested non-Jews — who are doing time.

College Students Tell of Life-Changing Experiences in Israel

JERUSALEM, Israel — As Israel’s summer tourist season kicks into high gear, the first waves of American young adults arrived in the country as part of the free 10-day trips for first-time visitors sponsored by Taglit-birthright israel.

Israelis in Guinea Safe After Soldiers’ Mutiny Threatens Capital With Violence

CONAKRY, Guinea — As a military mutiny in the west African nation of Guinea drew to a close, diplomatic and Jewish community officials in the region cautiously said that expatriates in the capital city of Conakry seemed to have escaped the unrest relatively unscathed.